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It has gone under the radar with all Milan's transfer excitement this summer, but remember that wonderkid called Hachim Mastour? Well Milan have released him and he is now a free agent. @paul_grech with the story of a fenomeno crowned too soon 🤴🏻🔴⚫https://t.co/iB183hnxQL

I was pretty happy with this piece I wrote on AS Roma and thought that it was a quite insightful look at their strategy. I hoped people would like it but you can never really tell in advance.

What I certainly never expected was to receive an e-mail from Jim [James] Pallotta*, Roma's billionaire owner to write to me telling me he appreciated the analysis, where he felt I was off and in general mentioning other areas that they were working on. Still astounded, to be honest.

When the American billionaire of Italian origin, James Pallotta, purchased AS Roma in 2014, he tried to say the right thing: how he had been falling in love with the club he had part-owned and stressing his desire to do well. And yet, for all his visible ambition, he very skillfully avoided making any concrete promises about the vision of AS Roma. Perhaps he had seen other rich American businessmen be attracted by the European game only to be shunned when it turned out that their pockets weren’t as deep as the fans had hoped. Those experiences highlighted the need to rein in expectations so that he could better deliver his vision.

One of the more lasting stereotypes in world football relates to Brazilian players and how they come to develop the skills that are a hallmark of their game. Many still believe that Brazilian boys spend most of the day playing on sandy beaches or the narrow streets of the favelas and it is there that their ability to command the ball to do their bidding comes from.

Paul Pogba leaving Juventus at the peak of his powers defined the club’s biggest achilles heel over the last decade. And yet, it didn’t put a brake on their progress as a team. Art by Revant Dasgupta.

When rumours of the manager Juventus had chosen as the Antonio Conte’s replacement first started to emerge, they were written off as ridiculous.

The fiery former midfielder had brought success back to Juventus, winning three consecutive league titles in as many seasons as managers. So when he left the club was once again the leading one in Italy, status which allowed it the privilege to choose any top manager they wanted to replace him.

Which is what made the eventual choice of Massimiliano Allegri such an apparently ludicrous appointment. True, he had led AC Milan to a league title yet eventually he had become a figure of ridicule there. By the time he left, he was criticised for everything from his tactical inflexibility to the way in which he spoke.

His reputation lay in tatters. And yet, contrary to most, Juventus saw something in him.